How To Book A Cheap Theme Park Getaway: Europa Park
Time for another instalment of how to book a cheap theme park getaway, this time looking at one of Europe's biggest theme park resorts: Europa Park! For those who don't know, Europa Park is a giant German theme park resort based in the town of Rust. Alongside a large theme park which houses a ton of awesome shows, restaurants and attractions all themed to different aspects of Europe, the park also have SEVEN accommodation options as well as numerous themed restaurants and bars within the hotels themselves. To put it bluntly, it's kind of a must-visit theme park destination for any theme park fan! But sadly, despite their awesomeness, these on Resort offerings aren't always the cheapest, so I'm here with a budget alternative for how to still enjoy all of the fun of Europa Park without breaking the bank.
As always, the same rules will apply. Let's kick off with how to get there.
Europa Park is in an odd place, kind of right on the border of France, Switzerland and Germany. As such, there are tons of airports nearby with many different options of how to get there - for the purposes of not going on and on, I'm going to stick in my top three options. As always with these trips, there IS the option of driving, but honestly you're better off flying. Let's explore the choices:
Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden
Good old Ryanair operate a service to this airport direct from Stansted. Annoyingly the flight times are a little inconvenient for a theme park trip - flights arrive in Baden-Baden at 5PM and leave at 1PM, so great if you fancy just one day in the park and then a few hours either side to check out some of the bars and hotels. Cheapest price at the moment is £26 return in May.
Europa Park do recommend booking a shuttle but in my experience these can be very expensive. As always, hiring a car and driving would be my recommended option. It's just a 90 minute drive to the park from the airport and hire cars at the time of writing are £115.
You could get public transport from here, but honestly it looks like a bit of a headache, with all my research still showing at least 2 changes to get from the airport to the park, and nobody wants that faff! If you're interested, Europa highlight this on their website.
Stuttgart
Your next option is Stuttgart. This is an EasyJet flight from London Gatwick, and whilst it's slightly pricier than the above Ryanair option, the timings are much better suited for a theme park trip, arriving in Stuttgart at 9PM and departing at 9PM, so plenty of time for a whole day at the park not broken up by having to leave early to catch your flight! Cheapest price at time of writing this is showing up as £63 return when booking in June.
Public transport options take you back via Karlsruhe airport, so kind of nullify themselves here! Your best option is to grab a hire car, which is ridiculously cheap at just £23 a day for the smallest option. It's a 2 hour drive from the airport to the park, which is obviously a little further away than Baden-Baden, but when you consider the times of the flights are much more convenient it makes sense to pay a little extra to save yourself the faff!
Basel
The last option is Basel. Basel is an interesting airport as it literally sits on the borders of the counties I mentioned above, joining them altogether in a strange way. Not only is this by far the closest of the 'major' airports to the park, but the flights are also ridiculously cheap. You can get return flights here with Ryanair from London Stansted for £16! Similarly to Karlsruhe, the flight times are a little annoying so you may want to consider staying for two nights to ensure you get one full day at the park, but when prices are that cheap that doesn't seem like such a bad idea!
Seeing as the journey is just a 26 minute drive from the airport to the park, you may want to consider hiring a taxi if you're unable to drive. Again, public transport here isn't very helpful as it takes triple the amount of time and makes you go back on yourself to get anywhere. Car hire though is £71 a day, and as stated it's a 26 minute drive so you're going to spend very little on petrol!
I've outline all of those options there for you so you can choose the option that works best for you timings/travel wise. For the purpose of this article though we have to take the cheapest, and that is Basel airport.
Also, my knowledge of public transport here is a bit rubbish I'm, afraid. If you've done any of these journeys yourself using public transport and they're relatively straightforward, please leave a comment below explaining how!
Also, my knowledge of public transport here is a bit rubbish I'm, afraid. If you've done any of these journeys yourself using public transport and they're relatively straightforward, please leave a comment below explaining how!
Travel: £51.50
As much as the Europa Park hotels are stunning, they can be extremely pricey. That, and you're allowed to still enjy the bars and restaurants as a non-hotel guest anyway, so realistically you're not missing out on much! The entire surrounding town of Rust is STACKED with B&Bs, so they're all really competitively priced.
Doing a quick flick through booking.com with my standard criteria (rating of at least 8, parking, private bathroom) a ton of hotels pop up, but top of the list is a little place called Thai Taiwan at £54 a night. Of course, you can have a play around with which options suit you best but for the sake of cheapness, that will do nicely!
Hotel: £27
The tickets for Europa Park are quite straightforward: €40.50 for one day or €76 for two. Like with most European parks, there aren't really any 241 options floating around like we're used to in the UK, so that's pretty much as cheap as you're likely to get.
Whilst I'd always recommend a minimum of two days at the resort (especially for a first time visit), we're all about saving cash in these guides, so a one day ticket for £40 please!
Ticket: £40
And the final tally:
Travel: £51.50
Hotel: £27
Ticket: £40
Total: £118.50
So, there you go! A trip to Europa Park from the UK can be done for just over £100. Although I'd like to reiterate again that I do not recommend this kind of visit for a first-timer, as the park is best explore over a few days, but if you fancy a flying visit and have the spare cash laying around, this is perfect!
Talk later xoxo,
2 comments
It’s my first time to visit this site & I’m really surprised to see such impressive stuff out there.FlightTimes99
ReplyDeleteCan you suggest a 2 day plan?
ReplyDeleteGoing in August